FLINTSHIRE'S most prolific criminals may be spied upon as part of an all-out blitz to clamp down on crime.

The scheme will see the area's most active burglars, car thieves and thugs closely monitored by officers using tactics including undercover surveillance.

The Flintshire Community Safety Partnership has signed up to the Home Office's Prolific and Priority Offenders (PPO) scheme - which will see persistent offenders fast-tracked through the courts.

The PPO scheme will also be used to help criminals mend their ways.

Home Office research shows a pool of about 5,000 hardcore criminals in England and Wales commit one million offences between them each year, at a high cost to their local communities.

More than half of all prolific offenders are under 21, with nearly three-quarters starting offending between 13 and 15 years old. Many were excluded from school.

Almost two-thirds are said to be hard drug users, more than a third were in care as children and 70% are unemployed with little or no legal income.

Each of North Wales' six counties have been asked to devise a specific framework to identify its 15 most prolific offenders.

The scheme will see North Wales Police, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Flintshire County Council, Flintshire Local Health Board and the Probation Service working hand-in-hand to monitor the troublemakers.

The PPO scheme has three strands. One is to prevent and deter, partly by providing support for young people at high risk of committing crimes.

The second is to catch and convict offenders and the third is to rehabilitate and resettle offenders.

Sgt Andy Massey, of North Wales Police, said: 'The initiative is being used in Flintshire to identify our most prolific criminals whom we will pay particular attention to and help reduce their offending behaviour.

'The scheme is all about working in partnerships with the likes of the Probation Service, the CPS, the courts and housing departments.'

Individuals will also be targeted with intensive programmes to tackle problems like drug and alcohol addiction. Speaking at the launch of the PPO scheme in September, Home Secretary David Blunkett said: 'The message I am getting across is that if you want help, we will help you. If you don't want to be helped we will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

'We have to ensure that when people get out of prison someone meets them, their immediate housing and employment needs are looked after and there is someone they can call on.

'Above all, we can get them out of the situation that got them into jail in the first place. That's in our interest because they, by their very natures, are repeat offenders.'